Pictures of Reality: Ownership
We wrestled with the title of this message. Initially, I had written (in pencil), “Greed” or “Rich Fool”, but those sound so negative and carry a connotation of guilt. I don’t want to go there. However, I am already being challenged by the Scripture this week as I examine my own life through it’s lens. That is the difficulty of God’s Word that we need to embrace if we are truly going to embody the Core Values we hold of “Struggle” and “Redemption”. Scripture brings things to light that are uncomfortable and this week, I’m squirming. I feel like this parable is easier to understand than I want it to be, but my own comfort causes me to desire it to say something different than the conviction that it lays on my heart.
The story is short and simple. I guy with stuff who wants to build a bigger place to store more of it. Take the time to read this parable in Luke 12:13-21.
I want to encourage you to share your thoughts and questions about this story here with our community. As we work through it together, there is a depth of insight that is awesome! A couple of my thoughts:
* I get the sense that this parable is really not about “stuff” and the ownership of it, rather it is about how much “ownership” your stuff has of you.
* What does it mean to be rich toward God? Again, is it the case of being easier to understand than we try to make it?
September 19th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
The way that I have always thought about this parable is that “things” or possesions are bad. This made me think that Christians who had a lot of stuff, weren’t really doing the right thing. I have come to realize, this is only partly true. I don’t think that Jesus was trying to say, “don’t buy things”, rather it is the condition of the heart which is buying. Don’t make things the #1 goal, if you do, what this leads to is that ugly thing called selfishness. It really isn’t about the stuff any more, rather about ME, ME, ME.
I guess this does all sound obvious, but I am sure, that we(insert an even larger “I” here) being honest, could say we still struggle with it. Something I found interesting is that the next part of the chapter discusses ” do not worry about anything”. I think if we heeded this first, (did I just say heeded?) then maybe this love of possessions, this love of self wouldn’t even be a problem. I hope I said something worth reading…my mind is other places…….
September 19th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
We definitely have a problem with our stuff owning us. It’s not just material goods, but services and comforts. Can you go without your daily Starbucks fix? How about giving up watching the Broncos for a whole season? Would I have been willing to abstain from watching the World Series last year even though it’s likely the only time in my life that the White Sox would get there? As a very simple guideline, if it’s something that you can’t give up, it owns you more than you own it.
As far as being rich toward God, I relate it back to Dean’s sermon on the talents a couple weeks ago. It’s not just about using your gifts to promote God’s agenda, but about making everything in your being aligned with what God wants. It’s the same message in this parable, except the focus is more on physical stuff than on abilities. Maybe Jesus was convinced that if people heard the same message several times in slightly different ways that one of them would sink in and would be relevant to their lives. If you want to really reach a wide audience, you need to deliver a message that feels very personal to everyone. Normally you can’t do that with just one delivery.
Time to go to home group and see how other people disagree with me.
September 19th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
I agree Josh! It doesn’t have anything to do with the “things” at all. It is truely a condition of our hearts. After doing a year long study on prosperity, I have found that it isn’t about the material things. In fact God wants to bless His people…abundantly. As I read Deut. 28:1-14 I am reminded of just how much God wants to richly bless those who seek to walk in obedience to Him. (Of couse we all fall short! That’s where grace comes in.)It’s not simply a blessing that means we will have lots of stuff or that nothing bad will happen to us. All it means is that God’s favor will be in our lives. By obeying His will for our lives we open up doors of opportunity for God to bless us. He wants and desires to bless His children. Abraham was incredibly wealthy, so was king David. These were some of the founding fathers of our faith. And isn’t it ironic that they didn’t really seek to have success or prosperity in their lives. They sought God and put His Kingdom first (most of the time). Their success was a byproduct of obedience and desire to serve God out of their whole hearts. As we seek God and His Kingdom all things will be added unto us. That means all that God has for us, can and will be ours! If we also learn to put His Kingdom first and love Him with our whole hearts. As we do this we really won’t need to worry about anything, just as the verse says. Anyway, first time here…sorry if I rambled!
September 19th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
For me the issue of riches whether it means money, possessions, success, or even personal image is truly an issue of the heart and “where your treasure lies”. I live with my heart and know it is far from pure.
I recently read this quote in a book. “We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing.” I learned this the hard way when I went through several simultaneous experiences where I lost almost everything except my personal belongings (job, home, relationships, etc.). To continue in the same mindset and behavior would likely have cost me those belongings too. I had to choose to change, and to live life differently. It didn’t just happen, I had to choose it. I had to make intentional decisions and actions both toward certain things and away from other things. I had to give up things I really desired. My longings for riches in my life pulled me one way, away from God. It hasn’t been easy, in fact it has been incredibly hard, but I am learning that there is only one thing I really want in this life. I probably deserve to be called a fool like in the story, but I’m willing to keep seeking the inheritance I don’t deserve. I want to learn what it really looks like and takes to love God with ALL I have and am.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:04 am
Hey Dean juat wanted to thank you for allowing me into your fellowship. I certainly enjoyed meeting friends of Greg & JewelAnne. I look forward to keeping up with your blog and sermons online. ….” the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved” Acts 2:27 Let that be your guideline.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:25 am
There is a sort of illustration I use to explain to someone who I am talking with about faith. It is to simply hold up, in front of your face, your hand pointing up with the index finger (as if to say number one) about 8 to 10 inches from your face. Now focus on the finger till it comes in clear and there is but one. For this illustration we will compare this focus on the finger as a focus on Christ. When the finger comes in clear and sharp, just one, the rest of the area around is out of focus. Now refocus on the area past the finger and a blurred double image of it will take its place. Thus we have, in the area, the world. Result is, if one focuses on Christ the rest of the world is out of focus (in the world but not of the world) and when the focus changes to the world a double out of focus vision of Christ comes to eye. Double minded and unstable in faith.
In Hebrews and in the Bible it tells the reader that Christ Jesus is the author of what we call faith. Even the word Christian comes from someone following Christ Jesus. The difference is that today one needs to tell you he or she is a Christian but in Christ’s time it was plain as the cloths one wore or the foods one ate and the company on kept. The real test is not in the telling but in the showing as speaking volumes in who and or what one serves.
In Luke 12:13 I first see Christ asking what is His part played in this query of inheritance between 2 brothers. As Christ asks the heart of His followers and those in attempt to follow what part does He play. I call it motive. Is our journey into a sampled state of being Christ like motivated by Love of God or a reward? One reads in Scripture that everywhere Jesus went His companion was His Loving Father of whom He served in Love with total obedience. Jesus made it clear that it was the will of His Father that was to be served in His ministry on earth.
So we see Jesus asking where am I in this question of your heart, inheritance? Is the focus on the single sharp image of Christ or out there in the world somewhere? Does it truly matter if the steps of loving God are in order, as to an earthly inheritance? The difficult task at hand is to see through the eyes of Christ—His truth. What really counts are matters of the Heart. If one wants to grasp an understanding of a Godly heart, study David. Hebrews 11, the chapter filled with Biblical greats, but scripture mentions David, the sinner he was, as the one having a heart after God.
In a movie I like to see the order of it from beginning to end but sometimes in scripture one needs to read beyond the chapter or verse to see the entire picture. In Luke 12 if we read on it is revealed that this is truly a matter of the heart.
John 13:35 “by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. If ye have love for one another.
Love comes from the heart an important organ indeed. But did you know the Lord can transplant a heart anew into someone willing. The heart a tenaciously hard-working dynamo, the heart can continue beating even when all surroundings nerves are severed. And what a beat! It thumps an average of 75 times a minute, 40 million times a year, and 2.5 billion times in an average life.
With each beat, the adult heart discharges about four ounces of blood. This amounts to 3,000 gallons a day or 650,000 gallons a year—enough to fill more than 818,000-gallon tanks. In fact, the heart produces enough energy in one hour to lift a 150-pound man to the top of a three story building, in 12 hours to lift 65 tons one foot off the ground, and enough power in 70 years to lift the largest battleship completely out of the water. But despite all the power of a human heart, it is powerless to change itself.
Ezekiel 11:19 “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh.
Psalm 112:4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
I think Jesus would like it if we looked to nature for an idea of how we are to serve one another. Might we look to one creation of our Lord’s, the bee. The busy bee. One bee always seems ready to feed another bee, even if that bee is from a different colony. Bees are very social insects, and mutual feeding seems to be the order of their existence. The workers feed the helpless queen, which cannot feed herself. They feed the drones and of course they feed the young. They seem to actually enjoy this social act. They also cluster together for warmth in cold weather and fan their wings to cool the hive in hot weather.
When swarming time comes, bee scouts take flight to find suitable quarters where the new colony can establish itself. These scouts report on its whereabouts by executing a strange dance (as they also do to report the location of honey). After the report, the entire assembly seems to reach a common choice. Then they all take wing in what is called a swarm.
The bee has been aptly described as busy. To produce one tablespoon of honey for our use, the little bee makes 4,200 trips to flowers. A worker bee will fly as far as eight miles in search of nectar. He makes about 10 trips a day to the fields, each trip lasting about 20 minutes and 400 flowers.
To produce just one pound of clover honey, the bee must visit 56,000 clover heads. Since each head has 60 flower tubes, a total of 3,360,000 visits are necessary. In the end, that worker bee will have flown the equivalent of three times around the world. The bee is more honored than other creatures, not because she labors (works) BUT because she labors for others. A good model for the church—everybody working to make life sweeter for others. Jesus said the world would recognize the church by our mutual love for each other. Unfortunately this has not always been the history of God’s people.
May the community of Pathways be as busy as the bee with a focus on Christ as its flower producing glory toward the Kingdom to come, the rightful inheritance of brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus now and for eternity! Peace be with us all.
September 21st, 2006 at 2:36 pm
nice stuff friends…really enjoyed the reading…ever notice what would drive God to kill?…it’s not the usual offenses…in this parable it is an already rich man storing up even more riches…if you would allow some creative license and reading between the lines…Jesus’ original audience no doubt included a majority of poor, hungry people…the man in the story just had a windfall of food…no thought of helping his neighbor…no thought of thanking God…only silly prudence…I like what Keith was getting at…God blesses so that his people will not only be blessed, but also a blessing to others…Rob Bell elaborate on this in Nooma 013 “RICH”…peace, y’all, 805 OUT!
September 21st, 2006 at 2:40 pm
for another death sentence from God story check out Ananias & Saphira in Acts…again not the offense that you might think would incur the wrath of God…and one other weird thought that just shot through my mind…Jesus yells a lot at the religious establishment, but extends extraordinary grace and patience to the promiscuous woman (on more than one occasion) and the cheating tax collector…once again 805 OUT!